PUBG banned over 1 million players in January, new anti-cheat measures block ReShade

Having drank into the wee hours of January 1 during new year celebrations, I'd technically made an arse of the Jan Ban/Dry January before it'd even started. I thereafter made it to January 12, before succumbing to a boozy weekend because I've clearly got no willpower.

Luckily for us, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds developer PUBG Corp is better dedicated to the cause. Instead of abstaining from alcohol, though, it's clamping down on cheaters—having banned one million rule-breaking players in January alone.

That's according to Battleye, the anti-cheat analysis software that governs the battle royale shooter's servers. Taking to Twitter, it said: "We have banned over 1,044,000 PUBG cheaters in January alone, unfortunately things continue to escalate."

This comes off the back of PUBG Corp's recent moves to block Steam family sharing, as well as its new and incoming "anti-cheat solution". More information on the latter can be found via this blog post, which explains programs that hook into the game's files will be blocked. One of the programs in question is the popular post-processing tool ReShade.

"The new anti-cheat feature will block different helper programs that alter the graphics or aid in gameplay in some way," reads a PUBG forum post. "What these programs have in common is that they all hook into our game and transform game files. Programs that are not used to gain an unfair advantage can also be blocked if they behave like cheats.

"One of the popular programs that will be blocked is ReShade. You will not be banned for having it on system but you will no longer be able to play PUBG while it is installed. Please uninstall ReShade (or any other blocked program) and launch the game again. Some players may find that reinstalling PUBG is also necessary."

Update: PUBG's latest anti-cheat measures were expected to roll out on Monday at 6pm PT/Tuesday at 2am GMT, but have been delayed. ReShade has however been disabled as planned—the details of which follow.

"As announced, the new anti-cheat solution that was to be applied today has been delayed," says an update post on the PUBG forum. "However, BattlEye, a part of our anti-cheat solution, has blocked ReShade. For you to run the game, you must uninstall ReShade. If the game files are already damaged, you must also reinstall the game.

"ReShade not only behaves like a cheat program but can also be used for cheating, and must therefore be blocked. Please be advised that this is a permanent block."

PUBG Corp cites an "unexpected issue... while testing its compatibility" as the reason for the new system's delay, however expects to update players "soon".